Tower seems to have continued on online and has some items that are very competitively priced. Wikipedia has some interesting things to say about the Tower saga but the bottom line is whether or not anyone else used has them lately and would like to speak up??

Wikipedia FYI about 1/2 way down the page under RETURN: Wikipedia: Tower Records

Apparently, the Tower name (at least online) has been bought by "Caiman". I have seen Caiman on Amazon Marketplace a lot and only has a 92% average rating (but is on the upswing).

I know, its so hard to focus on anything but DD right now!!

Lar

FYI, this thread will probably get moved to the Store Forum.

I don't know anything about "the Tower saga", but I placed an order with them about a month ago, when they had How I Met Your Mother: Season 2 at a great price. I got it in the mail about 10 days later, no problems here!

Rob

If you order from Caiman on amazon, they tend to really suck. But the limited experience on tower.com has been better.

I ordered something on Sunday from Tower.com but it hasn't shipped yet so I'll keep everyone updated

Something seems off about this site...

Radio is the number one selling DVD. Radio . Really?

tower = caiman =

The problem with Caiman, now Tower, is that they display a lot of DVDs in their site as in-stock when in fact they don't simply have it. Then, instead of sending you an email stating that, they just leave the order open, never telling the customer that they don't have the item until they are confronted.

I recently ordered the region 5 2 disk DVD set KATIE MELUA:ON THE ROAD AGAIN at a great price ($15.35) much cheaper than anywhere else (although their online price has gone up since then). Anyway, it arrived within a week in perfect condition. It's interesting that they have many non-region-1 dvds.

So, my concerns are validated.
Jeez, I hate that dilemma.... good price/bad rep.

I have emailed them in order to verify the item's actual stock status. That will at least make me feel a little better about eventually ordering from them..... if they even respond.

My impression of their online stock status info was that if it says "in stock", then maybe it is. If it says "2 to 4 weeks", don't waste your time as stuff that's long OOP is given that time frame, too.

Their "order status" email addy comes back as undeliverable and the Pricegrabber.com feedbacks are not very kind either. Pricegrabber

Oh, sorry about not posting in the Store Forum with this topic.

Lar

Re: non-region-1 dvds

I had a similar windfall and positive experience, picking up Le Frère du Guerrier [Region 2 PAL] for $15 + $3 SH.

I made a order for several CDs a few months back when their prices were very good, and it was a very good experience. I just placed another order recently that included good deals on some "ships in 2-4 weeks" items. We'll see how that goes.

SFranke, let us know what happens with that order. In my case, the CD is one that I think is out of print, but shows to be in stock, not even list as 2 to 4 weeks out. A red flag, to be sure. We'll see if I get an email response.

Lar

I just checked the price on 24 season 6. $70.10 with free shipping. WTF, on a $59.95 list item.

Tower.com just canceled my order that I placed on 11/4 without e-mailing me or anything to let me know. Granted I did place an order on an OOP DVD that said it was in stock but still, pretty crappy customer service if you ask me

I agree. I emailed them and they promptly responded today basically reiterating what the website said, either "in stock" or "2 or 4 weeks" out. When I asked if she could do a physical stock check if her time quotes were just a reiteration of the website, she replied that she could not as she was in Quebec and shipping is in Florida. It's a similar business model as Wherehouse.com in that many of their product images are inaccurate and misleading. They cannot verify, just that if you recieve the wrong item, send it back for full credit. Their efficiency is more important than customer service.

How is Tower.com on refunds? May be OK if gotrice487's order was cancelled after 8 days. Doesn't seem to be too bad, aside from the fact that the website was misleading to start with. How did you find out gotrice487? Credit card bill (or website)?

BTW, no one stated that they had good prices all around. Only on certain items, hit and miss.

They had some very good prices on CDs a few weeks back, but they've increased them across the board it seems. Some deals can still be had if you don't mind hunting. For instance, Focus' Hamburger Concerto is $11.29 versus >$20 at Amazon and ~$18 at deep discount.

And on another note, one of my 2-4 week items shipped five days after I ordered. This one was not OOP (Porcupine Tree's Deadwing DVD at $12 for the curious).

Today, another 2-4 week item shipped: PT's In Absentia DVD. This one's not OOP, and I have one OOP 2-4 week item that hasn't shipped: Weather Report's Tale Spinnin'.

Personally, I wouldn't order from Tower again even if I knew they would be the only site ever to carry something I wanted. I ordered 7 items that were listed as special order items that would take between 3-4 weeks. The prices were reasonable but they are beyond clueless, unorganized or deceptive (take your pick based on the day).

One week after placing the order, they told me I needed to double check my order for region codes and that was why the order was held up. When I called, they played dumb and said they had no clue why I got that email and that the order was being investigated for fraud. Then when I told them they already deducted the money, they played dumb again and said the order was held up due to it containing special order items.

A month later, when the DVDs still weren't sent, I finally got a supervisor who told me he showed them being in the warehouse inventory and to give it another week or two. One of the titles were discontinued, however, and I could get that refunded if I wanted to. When I asked why they didn't do it automatically, he said the customer needs to ask for one (disregarding that I wouldn't have known it was discontinued unless I called)

Eventually, the site said all of the items were no longer available, but again, no attempt was made to notify me. They don't return emails or phone messages (for 2 weeks straight, calls went to a voicemailbox that was full). They claimed I was given a refund, which I wasn't, and said accounting needed to invesitigate. It was only after several nasty emails and filing a formal complaint with my state's consumer protection board did they admit the refund did not go through and gave me one.

I would stay away at all costs.

^ exactly. i am sure that if you did not pursue a refund so aggressively, you would never have received one because this sorta happened to me as well. not to the extent of filing a consumer complaint though. but one of the cs people i spoke with seemed like a refund on items due to inavailability was routine for him.